Lineage is by far NCsoft’s biggest earner, followed by Guild Wars 2, Aion, and Blade & Soul. The company said that WildStar is on track to launch in mid-2014 and that the key GW2 focus is not on an expansion but with bringing the game to China.
I hope I’m somehow wrong or this source is unreliable, but it’s looking really grim right about now. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised…
I think you might be reading too much into what the Massively writer said. From what I remember, the actual comment was more like, “We haven’t decided whether an expansion is the right way forward.”
Which could mean a lot of different things.
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Nah, we are getting another few patches “worth an expansion”. And More awesome Living Story. Hopefully with some more Scarlet… And a new gear tier maybe, like crafting to 600 for the heroic feels of being a tailor. I’ll poke those monsters with my needles…
The thing is that communication between NCsoft and Arenanet has been somewhat less optimum. In may last year they announced an expansion for the second half of the year (wich obviously didn’t happen), while in august Arenanet clealry announced that they are working on other projects then LS but that they have not made up their mind wether it would be a traditional expansion sold through retailers, or more expansion-type content released trough gemstore or (permanent and free) living story releases. Given the difference between those comments I guess that things between Anet and NCsoft didn’t always went smoothly when it comes to the expectations for an expansion.
Also in Asia, it is not common to come back on previous statements. a promise to release an expansion in the second half of 2013 is a promise you keep. The loss of credibillity that that seemed to be inaccurate information is taken a lot harsher then around here.
So the combination of those two factors is likely why NCsoft decided to not mention anything bout an expansion before Arenanet has decided how they are going to release the projects they are currently working on and decided on a solid date to do so.
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The thing to remember is that Anet has stated that they fully intend to deliver the same amount of content that would come in an expansion, they’re just not sure that the standard expansion format is the way they’re going to do it. They don’t want to put out a new box of the game.
Personally I think they’re going to use the living story to deliver the content in chunks. Hopefully the features build after this LS season wraps up will be the start of the real new content.
expansions take a long time, its pretty unlikely they could have one this year when they havent even conceptualized one yet
This is false. They have a separate team working on “larger content releases” other than the Living World releases. There’s an in-depth article floating around that’s not even 2 (?) months old.
thing to remember is that Anet has stated that they fully intend to deliver the same amount of content that would come in an expansion, they’re just not sure that the standard expansion format is the way they’re going to do it. They don’t want to put out a new box of the game.
Personally I think they’re going to use the living story to deliver the content in chunks. Hopefully the features build after this LS season wraps up will be the start of the real new content.
They’ve said a lot of things – a LOT – that they either failed to or never really intended to deliver upon. Lip service: tell the customers what they want to hear, even if it’s not true, so they’ll continue to hang around and spend money in the cash shop.
Just set it up like GW1 did. Stand alone or can be inter-twined. I had no problem buying all of the expansions for that game. I still have the boxes lying around somewhere. The LS stuff seems like a gimmick and doesn’t really give thrilling content, just something in the world is different for a period. That’s not my idea of an expansion, more like an alteration. Expanding on what you have already is an expansion (thus the word). Like adding skills, weapons, classes, races, maps, events, etc. Not making Lonars Pass have a new boss for a few weeks.
(Talk about EoTM if you want but that seemed more like a solution for WvW players crying about overflow than it did an expansion. Sure it’s new, sure it’s different, but it seemed like they just took something they had, and put it on a new map. Not… exactly my idea of expanding.)
expansions take a long time, its pretty unlikely they could have one this year when they haven’t even conceptualized one yet
Is that why other MMO companies release expansions every year?
yeah, but they are doing it on a plan from the day after the last expansion comes out. Anet hasnt even decided they want to do an expansion yet.
heres how it has to go, first they have to decide they want to do an expansion, then they have to restructure development and content creation teams around an expansion model.
a year from the time they do the restructuring, they can have an expansion ready. but even then, those things often go off schedule, like nightfall and eye of the north took 1.5 years.
Its really unlikely to see an expansion in 9 months, when up till now the company wasnt even trying to do one
Living story is boring , I havent completed a single achievement for the living story . Why they dont release an expansion for those who dont care about their story….
expansions take a long time, its pretty unlikely they could have one this year when they havent even conceptualized one yet
This is false. They have a separate team working on “larger content releases” other than the Living World releases. There’s an in-depth article floating around that’s not even 2 (?) months old.
none of the larger content releases is an expansion. They said repeatedly they arent even sure they will do one. The orginal intention is to release the little things that might be in expansion through living world, but they have yet to achieve this really, though they have released a decent amount of content. Very little of it has been an expansion of the game though. No new game wide systems, no new classes, races, few new zones. No further development of the charachters story. etc.
Now im not saying they wont release anything big or interesting this year, im just saying it wouldnt be an expansion most likely
Just set it up like GW1 did. Stand alone or can be inter-twined. I had no problem buying all of the expansions for that game. I still have the boxes lying around somewhere. The LS stuff seems like a gimmick and doesn’t really give thrilling content, just something in the world is different for a period. That’s not my idea of an expansion, more like an alteration. Expanding on what you have already is an expansion (thus the word). Like adding skills, weapons, classes, races, maps, events, etc. Not making Lonars Pass have a new boss for a few weeks.
(Talk about EoTM if you want but that seemed more like a solution for WvW players crying about overflow than it did an expansion. Sure it’s new, sure it’s different, but it seemed like they just took something they had, and put it on a new map. Not… exactly my idea of expanding.)
The issue is that using a system, like that means that a lot of money goes to the distributor and the retailers. One of the reasons that Arenanet can keep delivering the living story updates AND future expansion type content is cause they have a succesfull, gemstore and are selling a lot of copy’s directly through the website. Also a lot of people don’t like packages. I want to buy a new characterslot when I need one, not when there is an expansion, same goes for e.g. an extra banktab.
And the fact that they are looking in the release form, doesnt mean they are not working on the actual content. I bet they allready have numerous new beautifull maps ready that will blow our minds. Maybe somewhere dev’s are allready playing the game as tengu or Quaggan’s. That is all unrelated from the releaseform.
See it as follows. apple is thinking that is not so proffitable to deliver the next iphone again through the phonecompany’s they are thinking bout making it exclusive for applestores and apple.com cause they know people will buy it anyway. However, the shops and some groups of customers are unhappy with it and there are some doubts if it will be more profitable. So they haven’t reached any conclusion about that yet. But that doesnbt have anything to do with the phone itself. the phone can allready be ready, or halfway development.
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Living story is boring , I havent completed a single achievement for the living story . Why they dont release an expansion for those who dont care about their story….
Lineage is by far NCsoft’s biggest earner, followed by Guild Wars 2, Aion, and Blade & Soul. The company said that WildStar is on track to launch in mid-2014 and that the key GW2 focus is not on an expansion but with bringing the game to China.
I hope I’m somehow wrong or this source is unreliable, but it’s looking really grim right about now. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised…
No expansion? How about no nothing… NCSoft is surely looking at Wildstar as its “wow killer” (yeah I know, lol) and they probably want GW2 players to splurge money on it as well because GW2 is at the end of its supported life. With ESO RvR coming, GW2 isnt alone with the WvW anymore and I am guessing a loss of at least 30-50% WvW players for release month, then some will come back due to monthly fees (or horrible gameplay failure). This is in turn will make it a worse game for everyone left in WvW because season 2 is smack in the middle of this. When people leave, Anet no longer earn much through the gemstore and wont be inclined to make larger patches, they’ll start ramping up work on the next project if they havent already (GW3? :p).
ESO is far away from being able to compete to GW2. They are doing some things right but so many other things wrong, it is at best on par with gw2, but then there is something called monthly fee that makes it far far under par.
Arise, ye farmers of all nations
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ESO is far away from being able to compete to GW2. They are doing some things right but so many other things wrong, it is at best on par with gw2, but then there is something called monthly fee that makes it far far under par.
ESO is not even close to GW2. Have you played it? The combat is so bad.
Lineage is by far NCsoft’s biggest earner, followed by Guild Wars 2, Aion, and Blade & Soul. The company said that WildStar is on track to launch in mid-2014 and that the key GW2 focus is not on an expansion but with bringing the game to China.
I hope I’m somehow wrong or this source is unreliable, but it’s looking really grim right about now. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised…
More and more i wonder if Cryptic is delivering with Neverwinter what ANet claims to be doing with GW2. They introduced a new class, and expanded on existing ones, via a bi-monthly update that also introduced a new “campaign” zone. And they are likely to do the same again in a month or so.
ESO is far away from being able to compete to GW2. They are doing some things right but so many other things wrong, it is at best on par with gw2, but then there is something called monthly fee that makes it far far under par.
ESO is not even close to GW2. Have you played it? The combat is so bad.
it’s at least dynamic…..unlike the hoop jumping in GW2…..
Lineage is by far NCsoft’s biggest earner, followed by Guild Wars 2, Aion, and Blade & Soul. The company said that WildStar is on track to launch in mid-2014 and that the key GW2 focus is not on an expansion but with bringing the game to China.
I hope I’m somehow wrong or this source is unreliable, but it’s looking really grim right about now. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised…
From everything the devs have been saying, I have assumed there would be no expansion this year and probably not next year either. Not sure why anyone would think otherwise?
ESO is not even close to GW2. Have you played it? The combat is so bad.
I dont think it matter. People will want to try it out anyway. Surely I (and around half the people in my guild) cant be the only ones thinking like that? I doubt anyone think its going to be good for at least 6 months, but if it show promise and foundation is decent enough… Lets just say that Anet has long since missed their chance to make me believe that they can change WvW. Still havent seen something as simple as improving commander tags, which was promised what, a year ago? :/
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Okay out of my system. I don’t think Wildstar is the golden child for Ncsoft just yet. GW2 from that report is still it’s second biggest seller and it hasn’t even reached China yet. And the best seller is Lineage, which subsists more on the crazy amounts of money players have invested in it than anything else. We really won’t know the full picture until GW2 hits China and the rest of Asia, IMO.
Also most reports from the coming competition have been lukewarm. People seem to be liking the more traditional Wildstar, but ESO seemed to be taking a hit by walking to close to the WoW formula. I’m not saying numbers are going to shift, but I think you’ll see people return. I’m just not feeling the hype levels.
Anet’s working a weird angle with this living story set up, so NCsoft straight-up calling it an expansion is a mistake. They learned that from last year. There are other projects in the works, two “big ones.” I’m guessing we won’t hear anything until the season is over and the big feature patch drops. Maybe not even until the Chinese release.
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There is a chance that we get an expansion without traditional expansion. That is all. Arenanet has other ways to monetise their future content if they want to.
Turbine will go the same way and provide content without expansion. Therefore it would not be unusual to resign a traditional expansion.
No expansion? How about no nothing… NCSoft is surely looking at Wildstar as its “wow killer” (yeah I know, lol) and they probably want GW2 players to splurge money on it as well because GW2 is at the end of its supported life. With ESO RvR coming, GW2 isnt alone with the WvW anymore and I am guessing a loss of at least 30-50% WvW players for release month, then some will come back due to monthly fees (or horrible gameplay failure). This is in turn will make it a worse game for everyone left in WvW because season 2 is smack in the middle of this. When people leave, Anet no longer earn much through the gemstore and wont be inclined to make larger patches, they’ll start ramping up work on the next project if they havent already (GW3? :p).
But maybe I’m just a doomsayer.
Except that the earnings report shows that GW2 is not close to dying. And ESO? Really? I’ve been in that beta for months and now that NDA is down I can firmly say that game is not going to be a threat to anyone. It’s mediocre at best, with awful combat and animations and rather tedious questing. I do give them credit for putting out a rather smooth AvA though. That’s one of the few things it has going for it.
It’s really interesting, don’t they see that majority of players want permanent content ?
I want to see this game developing bigger and bigger with continuous addition of permanent content as a gw2 fan. Temporary content doesn’t make the game bigger in scale, when living story ends it won’t stay here unlike permanent contents. For example, after 1.5 years break, a player won’t find many noticable differences in game except some minor permanent additions. Eotm kind of patches/ls are good ones in terms of perma content. I think temporary living story is just a waste of time and workforce for arenanet in terms of making the game better with more content. We need new maps, new storylines, new classes, new features(raids, housing, gvg championship, sandbox features(yes this is the future of mmorpgs) etc.) and also more pvp content along with pve content with every patch.
I don’t really care wether or not the content is delivered through the Living Story or an expansion.
I just want to know what they are working on. Right now there is nothing to be excited about.
They’ve said that they have large pojects in the background, but they refuse to tell what it is, or even hint at what it is.
I think this is pretty much my feelings too. I love the game and I’m enjoying the build up to the season 1 finale despite mixed feelings over its implementation to date. However, it does seem really weird that the company refuses to announce its plans for the game. I understand that after the manifesto backlash it may be wary of future accountabilities, but most MMO companies announce titbits of what they are working on; Lotro announced new zones in Jan; TSW announced Tokyo a year in adavnce; Anarchy keeps its playerbase in the loop for balancing/new engine every month etc.
I’d have expected something from the Game Director about “GW2 in 2014”. Just to keep us excited!
I’d have expected something from the Game Director about “GW2 in 2014”. Just to keep us excited!
Same here, they’re probably reluctant to make any broad statements because they’re still working on several aspects of last year’s “second half of 2013” announcements. Their reach exceeded their grasp, so they have things coming in the first few months of this year that they wanted to bring out in Oct-Dec 2013.
They haven’t said anything because, honestly, what are they going to say? Imagine the reaction around here if they came out and said,
“Our plans for 2014 are to finish all the stuff we said we’d do in 2013. We’re going to continue with the Living Story model, so those of you wanting an expansion are just out of luck. Things like new races and new zones aren’t off the table, but neither are they things we’re going to implement. Oh, and we’ll be sure to release new items in the cash shop each and every Tuesday.”
I think instead of a full blown expansion we should just get some periodic mini expansion DLC’s that cost anywhere from $10-40 as well as the free 2 week updates.
It might become a challenge later on to sustain this game on sales and gem store alone.
I would purchase DLC content if the first one they released was based on elder dragon lore and bought new features like housing or some new thing that we can do.
I don’t really understand. If they release as much content during a season of the living story, instead of an expansion, then so be it. Wont have to wait a year or so for new content.
ESO is far away from being able to compete to GW2. They are doing some things right but so many other things wrong, it is at best on par with gw2, but then there is something called monthly fee that makes it far far under par.
ESO is not even close to GW2. Have you played it? The combat is so bad.
I played two beta weekends and now that the NDA has been lifted I can honestly say….
I had more fun playing over this last beta weekend than I have over the MONTHS that I’ve played this game. Combat was fun to me, and way more action-packed than this game’s combat model.
I, for one, will happily be paying a sub again once this game comes out.
ESO is far away from being able to compete to GW2. They are doing some things right but so many other things wrong, it is at best on par with gw2, but then there is something called monthly fee that makes it far far under par.
ESO is not even close to GW2. Have you played it? The combat is so bad.
I played two beta weekends and now that the NDA has been lifted I can honestly say….
I had more fun playing over this last beta weekend than I have over the MONTHS that I’ve played this game. Combat was fun to me, and way more action-packed than this game’s combat model.
I, for one, will happily be paying a sub again once this game comes out.
ESO past level 10 is a blast. Combat “connection” has vastly improved the last beta weekend.
Why do you think ANet is preparing something big for end of March? ESO gives you the freedom of skills of GW1 combined with a whole new world to explore.
It is probably more a successor to GW1 than GW2 is.
GW2 combat has not evolved. It feels stale and boring. Zerging got old fast. The vertical progression is no fun (I do not mind vertical progression, but all this crafting kitten…).
And people jump the ESO bashing train without knowing kitten.
This is what I told people last year. Obviously Anet won’t release expansion before their China release. Best way to monetize is to wait after the release in China. Even a dummy like me know that. I’m sure their market department knows that.
Even if it’s not a paid expansion. It makes sense to wait a few month after their game is released in other places. For market strategy.
I dont’ know if they are going to release an expansion. But I doubt any time soon.
•No decision has been made for GW2 expansion for now the focus is provide the LW updates and bring GW2 to China they will update when they have more visibility on the issue of an expansion
I’m I the only one who read the bolded part and read between the lines?
Translation: They aren’t going to talk about a possible expansion for GW2 in a public earnings report before Arenanet are ready to reveal what they have been working on.
This doesn’t translate into ‘they aren’t working on an expansion’. It means they aren’t going to throw such information out until Arenanet are ready to announce it themselves.
Why? Cause the first thing that would happen is Arenanet would be bombarded with questions about something they aren’t ready to talk about and the hype train would take off completely generated by an overexcited playerbase making random assumptions on what an expansion would mean.
We should really stop looking to non Arenanet sources for expansion info.
ESO is far away from being able to compete to GW2. They are doing some things right but so many other things wrong, it is at best on par with gw2, but then there is something called monthly fee that makes it far far under par.
ESO is not even close to GW2. Have you played it? The combat is so bad.
I played two beta weekends and now that the NDA has been lifted I can honestly say….
I had more fun playing over this last beta weekend than I have over the MONTHS that I’ve played this game. Combat was fun to me, and way more action-packed than this game’s combat model.
I, for one, will happily be paying a sub again once this game comes out.
ESO gives you the freedom of skills of GW1 combined with a whole new world to explore.
It is probably more a successor to GW1 than gw2 is.
Wooaahh slow down.. Lets not get ahead of ourselves bud.
I understand you are fond of ESO and while that’s great I think you are getting a lil crazy with that last line. I’ve been in ESO beta since September and it is nothing like gw1.
ESO is bad IMO but Gw2 is boring these days too.
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Ironically I was playing the first 9 levels of ESO and thought, “Why the kitten am I playing this kitten?!”
I have not seen such an uninspired start in a MMO for years. Somehow the game gets entertaining past level 10 and I like to punch stuff in first person view, even if it still needs improvements in that area.
You are right, GW2 is boring. The LS arc is nearly over, which provokes a bit of hope, but it is still ANet, so, there goes the hope down south.
